Common PPC Terms

Not sure of the difference between your CTR and your average CPC? We’ve put together a brief guide to some of the common terms you are likely to come across whilst working with PPC.

A

adCenter The Microsoft pay-per-click (PPC) ad network that includes PPC traffic from the Bing and Yahoo search engines. In the UK adCenter has a smaller share of the PPC market than the more popular Google AdWords.

AdGroup A subset of a PPC campaign comprising an ad or group of advertisements that target a specific set of keywords. An AdGroup typically represents specific areas, themes or products being advertised.

Ad Scheduling Setting campaigns to target specific times and days in which your ads are to be shown.

Adwords Google’s advertising platform, which allows advertisers to target their ad’s audiences in various ad formats both on the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network.

Analytics The measurement, collection and analysis of web data with a view to tracking progress, gaining insight and improving performance.

Average Position The average position an advert appears in with #1 meaning it came first, #2 second and so on.

B

Bid The maximum price an advertiser is willing to pay for someone clicking on an advert for a given keyword.

Broad Match A keyword matching option that will show an ad for a wide variety of related terms to the original term.

C

Campaign A series of typically related AdGroups (adverts and associated keywords) with a shared budget on a PPC network

Click Fraud Any click that is made on a PPC ad with malicious intent, including the intentional depletion of a competitors pay per click advertising budget.

Content Network Websites that have agreed to show PPC ads on their site, served by an ad network, in exchange for a share of the revenue generated by those ads.

Conversion A conversion occurs when a web visitor takes an action that the advertiser judges to be valuable (usually a purchase, but it can also mean a visitor signing up to a newsletter or completing an enquiry form).

Conversion Rate The percentage of visitors who “convert” (i.e. make a purchase, register, request information, etc.).

Cost per Conversion The average cost required to achieve a conversion on a website.

CPA Acronym for Cost per Acquisition - an alternative pricing model that based fees on conversions rather than clicks

CPC Acronym for Cost-per-Click, the cost paid by an advertiser when someone clicks onto an advert on a PPC network.

CPM An alternative online advertising payment model that charges per impressions (the number of times an ad is shown) rather than per click. CPM is the cost per 1,000 impressions.

CTR The number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad is shown, expressed as a percentage.

D

Daily Budget The maximum amount of money you are willing to spend in one day for displaying your ad on a PPC network for a given campaign.

Display URL The web address (URL) shown to people when they see a PPC advert.

E

Exact Match A Keyword matching type used within PPC advertising. Exact match is the most targeted match type. Exact match will only show your ad to people who search for exactly how you entered the keyword.

G

Geotargeting A method of targeting visitors based upon their location, such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code etc.

K

Keyword Words or phrases commonly used by people to search for information via a search engine. Keyword selection is an essential part of any PPC campaign.

Keyword Insertion A tactic that enables the dynamic insertion of the actual keyword searched for into either the headline or description of your ad text. This will place the keyword in bold which can increase click through rates but which needs with care.

I

Impressions The number of time an advert is shown by a PPC network within a given period.

L

Landing Page The web page you direct people to when they click onto your advert. Generally the more tailored a Landing Page is to a specific query, the better the results.

N

Negative Keyword A word or phrase added to your campaign that will stop your advert being shown if it is included in a search term.

O

Organic Search Results The standard (non paid for) search results compiled by a search engine using complex algorithms to rank sites.

P

Phrase Match A keyword matching type that is more targeted than broad match but more forgiving than exact match. This option requires specific words to be included in the same order within a search term for your advert to show.

Position Where your advert appears in the list of adverts shown to someone performing a search.

PPC Acronym for Pay Per Click - An Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers only pay when someone actually clicks on an advert.

Q

Quality Score A numerical score assigned by Google AdWords which essentially measures how relevant a keyword is to its associated advert and the page you direct people to. When you set up a new keyword Google provides an estimate of its quality score which is later refined via real world click through data.

R

Reach The total number of people exposed to an ad.

ROI A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments; calculated by dividing the benefit (return) of an investment by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

S

SEO An acronym for search engine optimisation – a series of strategies and tactics designed to improve your search engine ranking position in standard or organic search results.

Search Network A network of search engines that advertisers can opt in to advertise on through the Google AdWords platform.

Search Engine – A program typically available via a website such as Google or Yahoo, that enables you to search for information on the web. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine the ranking of websites within search results.

Sponsored Results PPC Adverts that are triggered as a result of a search for a specific keyword or search phrase.

U

Unique Visitor A statistic that counts each individual visitor to a site only once within a given time frame.

V

Visitor – An individual visit to a website. Visitor numbers are typically higher than unique visitor numbers as often people will visit a site more than once within a given time frame.